Griff500

To be fair this was a Saturday job when I was 13 years old for one season earning the princely sum of £2.50 working from 8 til around 2pm. The best part I recollect was taking the mid-morning orders of varoius cakes, sweets and cigarettes then jumping into their old tow boat, Annie , and crossing to the village to load up with goodies for the engineers. A few years on and I worked at Porter & Haylett at the very start of the Connoisseur era before moving out in 1983 to France and setting up their first operation in Auxerre. I moved back to the UK 10 years later and since work in a totally different sector, although I've recently moved back to Norfolk. Strangely enough I can still recollect many of the build numbers/registrations of the boats despite them reaching around 260 before I left

Hi Carol, long time lurker and first post. I worked at Southgates as my first Saturday Summer job and started to watch this purely out of interest. As it progressed it quickly dawned on me that I remembered this particular Saturday which was either in 1975 or 76, probably the latter. I have no recollection who the guy was who filmed the day or for what reason but remember we were all briefed to carry on our jobs as normal although one or two of the scenes appear to be quite staged. I can't believe that this was nearly 40 years ago and had virtually forgotten this era until seeing this film for the first time yesterday. There were some real characters at the yard ranging from the older traditional boatbuilders to the younger engineers dressed in their finest flared jeans! Happy days and some great memories brought back. I can vaguely remember some of the names of the people that worked there so let me know if you need any more info...